Joshua trees in record bloom out West

2:14 AM,
Apr. 22, 2013

Joshua Trees are in bloom in the Cima Dome area of the Mojave National Preserve. Millions of the trees have been bursting into bundles of greenish-white flowers in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. Just about every tree has bloomed this spring when usually far fewer do and they produce fewer flowers, biologists said.

Written by

Ian James
The Palm Springs Desert Sun

Desert ecologist Jim Cornett has been studying Joshua trees since 1988, and he has never seen them bloom the way they are this year.

The trees have been blossoming profusely throughout their range from Joshua Tree National Park to Tonopah, Nev., and Wickenburg, Ariz., sprouting abundant cream-colored flowers from the tips of their branches.

Cornett and other researchers say that while more study is needed to pinpoint causes, they suspect the unusual bloom could be linked to emerging climate changes and that two years of drought may be triggering a stronger reproductive effort as a sort of a ...